When my group and I were first coming together to think of what to do for our final presentation we all had different ideas.  Part of my group wanted to do something with friction and heat whereas other group members wanted to do electricity and lightening.  Then we thought of meeting in the middle where friction would cause electricity.  Once we all thought that sounded like a cool idea we realized static electricity would be the best subject to do our presentation on.   Though I only explained this in a few sentences it wasn’t as easy as it sounded.  For a while we almost completely changed routed going with completely unrelated ideas but we all came together and got through it.

After agreeing upon doing an experiment related to static electricity we thought of what may be a good experiment to show the class that was related to this topic.  We decided to use a balloon, water cotton and wool sweaters.  To do this we rubbed 3 balloons (all different sizes) against the cotton sweater for one experiment, then the wool sweater for another experiment.  then after rubbing the balloon against the sweaters we out the balloon very close to the water.  This made the water bend! The reason this happened is because electrons gathered on the balloon from our sweaters. You then bring the negatively charged balloon near the faucet and it is attracted to the positive force of the water. The attraction is strong enough to actually pull the water towards the balloon as it is flowing.

A professor at Suffolk came into my science class recently and did a guest presentation on different ways in which electricity can be produced.  He had multiple devices going on in the class room to show this, two of the more notable ones were the Mendocino motor and the Peletier Junction. These devices both use more unusual ways to create electricity yet exemplified more creative ways to create power without releasing green house gases.

The Mendocino motor consists of a multi-sided rotor block in the middle of a shaft. The rotor block has two sets of wingdings and a solar cell attached to each side. The shaft is positioned horizontally and has a magnet at each end. The magnets on the shaft provide levitation by repelling magnets in a base under the motor. There is an additional magnet that sits under the rotor block and provides a magnetic field for the rotor. When light strikes one of the solar cells, it generates an electric current thus energizing one of the rotor windings. This produces a magnetic field which interacts with the field of the magnet under the rotor. This interaction causes the rotor to turn. As the rotor rotates, the next solar cell moves into the light and energizes the second winding, creating a current in an opposite direction to the first thus maintaining the rotation. This process repeats as the motor spins.

The Peletier Junction was showed to the class in hopes to teach us that, when a current is made to flow through a junction between two conductors A and B, heat may be generated.  Though, it is important to note that the heat generated at the junction is not determined by the Peltier effect alone, as it may also be influenced by Joule heating and thermal gradient effects.  This produces thermoelectric effect which is the direct conversion of temperature differences to voltage and vice versa. The Peletier Junction device creates voltage when there is a different temperature on each side. Interestingly when a voltage is applied to it, it creates a temperature difference.

The film on Pandora’s promise was very interesting and enlightened me on the some of the effects of nuclear power plant failure.  Though the people in the film seemed to have mixed feelings on the topic some against it and some for it, it was none the less very educational.  Some members of the film that were featured like Lewis were very against nuclear energy in the past but now in support of it.  In the film they visit Japan and see some of the wreckage from the nuclear power plant meltdown in Fukushima.  This was difficult to watch as it was very unsettling to see what damage nuclear power plants can do to the world when they go wrong.  None the less I tend to still be a nuclear power plant supporter. I think the benefits from this technology with how efficient it is has more then helped society.  It may not be the perfect energy source but it is currently the most efficient a 86% efficiency rate.  Below are some interesting facts on nuclear energy  and its benefits.

• Around 6% of the world’s energy and 14% of the world’s electricity is produced by nuclear power.
• The Calder Hall nuclear power station in the UK was the first to deliver commercial quantities of electricity (1956).
• There are over 400 nuclear power reactors in use around the world.
• Nuclear power provides around 20% of the electricity used in the US.
• Nuclear energy generated 769.3 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity in 2012.
• Nuclear energy produces no green house gas emissions.

Though nuclear power needs  to have a close eye kept on its usage many would agree that it is safe. Many people panic about the things that could go wrong, but history only shows a few incidents with power plants over there 60+ year usage. Nuclear power even powers many of the U.S military’s air craft carriers and submarines and has allow much more efficient power usage by these vessels.  Clearly society has many benefits from this energy source and with better technology over time we the world will find only more efficient ways of preventing nuclear tragedies.

Taken from the white house’s website Obama’s Global Climate Change Initiative (GCCI) states as follows, “The United States will integrate climate change considerations into relevant foreign assistance through the full range of bilateral, multilateral, and private mechanisms to foster low-carbon growth, promote sustainable and resilient societies, and reduce emissions from deforestation and land degradation.”

Under The Obama administration many environmental accomplishments have taken place. Legislation has been passed so that all cars and light duty trucks will get about 55 mpg by 2025. Wind and Solar energy output has doubled and is continuing to grow. The U.S Energy Sector’s carbon pollution level is the lowest its been in 20 years. Many additional measures have been put into place with the goal making of our nation’s environmental efforts more progressive. In 2011 the Obama administration made the fuel economy standards for 2014-2018 model heavy duty trucks and vans. This will reduce green house gas emissions by 270M metric tons and save 30 million barrels of oil.  Also, in 2011 Obama has passed the Better Buildings Initiative to help commercial and industrial buildings become more than 20% more energy efficient by 2020.

The list of Obama’s environmental efforts goes on. He is clearly a man who takes pride in our planet and cares for our future generations experiences/interactions with nature. I would say that Obama is doing a good job at sticking to his policy of making the outdoors in America more sustainable and enjoyable while making us as a nation more energy efficient.